Wait It Out was written to my closest family, like many other songs in this project.
Where love, the joy of being together, see the positive in others, and support each other, was keywords in writing the song.
The song was written around 2004-5, at a time when I was flirting with making hybrids between traditional (including contemporary and classical) music, and punk (roughly explained).
Primal expressionism has always moved me, in all kinds of art, so if it’s a screaming voice or another instrument, doesn’t matter much more than the culture it comes from (which means nothing).
There’s so much to experience in the music world if you’re into contrasts and raw expression..
Anyway, I’ve talked a lot about that before in the blog so will not bore you with it again.
The song was performed extensively on tours the years after it was composed.
We even made an EP for the China market, released by October Party Records, with 5 songs on it. And we backed it with a couple of tours in China after the release.
Visual art: Anatoliy Akue
Drums: Bjørn Tore Kronen Taranger
Crux was composed when I was quite young.
This recording was also done when I was in my teens.
It was frequently played with my band “Woo” over a 4-year span, but never performed to an audience, only close friends heard us play it.
Visual art by Albarrán & Cabrera
This song has been recorded four times, and over three decades!
The first one, I recorded myself on an eight-track cassette recorder (after arranging everything on paper and a four track)
After a while we went to “Lydkjellern Studio” in Ålesund to record it again with Erik Valderhaug behind the desk (this time on ADAT digital tape, which was “all the rage” at the time).
After a couple of years, we brought the song with us to Duper Studio in Bergen commissioned by NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), and Yngve Sætre as producer (when NRK heard the result, they thought the song was too heavy).
This release however, is based on a live recording.
Every song I produce are based on “live recordings” though, those that I do for other artists as well. But usually not with an audience, like with “Rising Sun”.
It usually starts with working on getting a really good live recording, where everything “feels right”, the tempo, energy, groove, vibe, dynamics etc. A blueprint for the “real” recording session.
When everything is layered and recorded with detail and attention to every single instrument, the original blueprint recording are often muted and not present in the final result at all.
Everything on this recording however was done in one take, even the vocals, (on vocals I usually record at least 3 takes for good measure). But I wanted the sound and setting to be as raw, realistic and unforgiving as possible.
Visual art by Jetter Green
“You don’t need me” was composed around 2009.
The plan was to release two very different versions of it, but the other (original) version was somehow lost.
It is difficult to describe how this other version sounded like, but it was brighter, more positive in a way, and also had four cellos, timpanis, + lots of percussion! It was an all acoustic arrangement, but not mellow.
The lyrics started as some kind of love drama, but quickly evolved into different aspects related to loneliness, not belonging, or being seen (at home, out and about, or in a work/school enviroment).
This may not sound very constructive, but since we all know and experience these feelings, I believe it is positive to convey this, and the fact that no one is alone in these thoughts and experiences.
So the song is intended to be more like a reassurance of the natural and human aspect of these feelings.
You are precious!, so take care of yourself! :D
Photo: Boaz Aharonovitch
This post marks that it‘s exactly 5 years since I wrote my first blog post! Which means that I’ve now presented new music, visual art and words, on this site, every Friday for the past 5 years, without any disruption. As promised!
“Moment” was written when I was 19-20 years old, basically to encourage myself. It lived in my mind, partly subconsciously for months before I finally decided to play it on an instrument and record it. There’s also a second part to the song, which will not be presented here.
Moment was meant to be released on my first solo album Evolver, which never happened. Even though I got nationwide distribution for the album, long before it was completed. However, I managed to release a taste of the album through a mini album called Evolver EP before my band broke up.
All of this reminds me about the fact that I’ve never written anything about the first song ever released in this project, which happened on the 22th of December in 2014. It seems appropriate to do it now.
I remember it was a dark snowy winter day in December, and I was on my way to rehearsals with my band “Woo”, but first I had to pick up a long awaited package at the post office. The package contained a brand new mobile recording studio, which was state of the art, at the time.
I remember it was snowing heavily and just as we sat down in the car (driven by my father) on our way to rehearsals, it was suddenly announced on the radio that an avalanche had blocked the road. So, with nothing else to do, I opened the package with the brand new studio, plugged in my electric 12-string guitar that I had brought for rehearsals, and improvised a situation-report that I called “A Day of Winter”. I then added some tracks with my house organ (which really was a concert organ, and the elephant in my mother’s living room) and the song was finished.
The song also reminds me of the everlasting inspiration I get from nature, especially the nature around where I grew up. Life is flatter without those mountains, and fjords. The seasons are so intense and present. The light and weather is so tangible.
One of my personal goals for the future, is to expose myself more to this inspiration source, that has been with me, wherever I go, both consciously and sub-consciously from the day that I was born.
Visual art by Anatoliy Akue
When I wrote this song, I was inspired by a colleague that came from Bosnia.
A really warm and good hearted guy! Even though I bombarded him with questions about everything from Bosnian vocabulary, to war stories, and of course music from his home country.
The song was originally called “the war continues” in Bosnian. But eventually I changed the name to just “ it continues”.
While I was working on the song, the perspective changed from the war theme (which after all, I had no backround or business writing about) towards general reflection on what drives us to take action, in both good and bad ways. The thin lines between love and hate, despair and anger.
Apart from basic needs, I think most things spawns from desire, acceptance and love, or the lack of it.
And whatever happens, the mind continues relentlessly with it’s processing. Sometimes it seems that we don’t have control over our own thinking. None of us. So let’s just try to enjoy the ride.
With me on the session:
Geir Arne Ose: Drums
Photo: Boaz Aharonovitch